The Key: Book 2 The Rose Tree Chronicles

Chapter Five: Desperate Times...

Rein buried her face in her hands. All species of fairies had witnessed the creation of Xyntriav and they knew of all the wonders of the world... almost every detail. For instance, they knew how the Cataras Springs worked, they knew about the two keys allotting people inside, and they were aware of the three entryways which existed.

"What interest, exactly, do you have in the Cataras Springs?" Rein asked as she sat on the edge of the cigar case.

"I desire to drink the waters of the Spring of Agelessness," answered the captain.

"You do realize it is only agelessness you will receive and not immortality."

"I do realize this," he replied. "But it be agelessness I want and not immortality. If I wanted immortality, I would not be seeking the Cataras Springs."

"I suppose not." Rein racked her mind for more ways out, or at least ways to stall. "Why don't you want immortality? With agelessness you can still be killed but with immortality, you won't die ever."

"Which takes away all the excitement I experience every day in the sweet trade. There be more thrill involved in piracy than just thieving and killing, my dear."

Rein rubbed her forehead and sighed.

"So, are ya gonna tell me?" the captain pressed.

Rein didn't reply. She didn't even look at him. Her heart sank with every second that went by without a solution.

"Well then, I guess ye won't be gettin' yer wings back."

Captain Tzatara rose from his seat and left the cabin after returning his book to the bookcase. Rein gazed up at the ceiling with another sigh and sat defeated in the same spot, her elbows on her knees. What could she do to get this information from the captain without giving away the location of the key?

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Hours later, Rein lay in the open cigar case staring into space, still searching for solutions to this newfound problem. Now and then, she glanced out the window for any sign of birds or land, but it appeared they still sailed too far out in the ocean. She longed to explore the cabin for answers or perhaps something that could spark a useful thought, but for how long would the captain be gone? What would happen if he returned and caught her snooping about?

Eventually, Rein had grown so restless that she left the cigar case and stood at the edge of the desk where she scanned the cabin. The captain couldn't get upset at her for going such a short distance, right? Surely he could understand her desire to not be trapped in a single spot for hours on end? Of course, finding the nerve to go this far inspired the temptation to proceed just a little farther. Rein glanced around for a means to get off the desk, and that was when she heard someone approach the cabin doors. Too bad she hadn't found this courage an hour or so ago. Rein took a seat at the edge of the desk and placed her head in her hand to make it appear as though she was perhaps bored, and not plotting anything suspicious.

Captain Tzatara entered with a plate of food in his hand and approached his desk without a word. Rein found his apparent indifference about her being out of the cigar case relieving. He sat in his fancy gold and burgundy seat where he then tore off a piece of bread and set it in front of Rein.

"Ya hungry? If ya don't want bread, I have fruit and meat here. Ye can have whatever ya like."

Rein acted as if she didn't even hear the captain, which was difficult as she was very hungry and the aroma of freshly cooked meat was not easy to ignore.

"Ya know," continued the captain, "ye can still tell me where the key be. It's not as though the deal's off."

"Listen," Rein said as she got up and took a grape from his plate. She couldn't resist the food any longer. "Someone else is using the key right now. Not for the Springs though. She's been given a task and only has a certain amount of time to complete it. The key tells her how much longer she has. So I can't give it to you right now, even if I wanted to."

"I see," the captain said. "That's quite the predicament, ain't it? That's too bad."

Rein felt her hackles rise at incredible speed. Clearly Captain Tzatara still wanted her to tell him where the key was. Couldn't he ask for something else? Rein forced her rage back down with a deep breath.

"Out of curiosity, why aren't you asking where the Springs are located?"

"I be on my way to talk to someone about that right now," the captain answered.

"I can save you the trip," Rein offered after swallowing a bit of her grape.

"No, I want you to give me the key. Because even if I knew the location of the Springs, the key be the only way I can enter."

Rein paused and thought for a second. This wasn't entirely true, but telling him about the other two entrances wouldn't help either of them, so there was no point. She had to come up with something else.

"What if I told you about all the wonders of the Springs?"

"I already know about them."

Rein failed hide her shock. "What?"

"I already know about them," the captain repeated. He took a large a bite of his meat and smiled behind his scruffy facial hair.

"Then what are they?" Rein challenged.

"There be thirteen of them," Captain Tzatara began as he leaned back in his seat and brushed his hands together. "The Spring of Agelessness, the Spring of Youth, of healing, wisdom, beauty, knowledge, power, life, strength, complete rule, wealth, freedom, and lastly the Spring of Ultimacy. And before ya bother, I do know how the Springs work. At the entrance of the realm, there be thirteen goblets of different colors, one goblet to each spring. The trick be that ya have to match the right goblet to the right spring. The more extraordinary the wonder, the harder it be to find. Ye know ya found the right one when the goblet ya hold disappears in the water. And trust me, I know which goblet goes to which spring and the details of what spring does what. Please don't make me name 'em."

Rein gaped blankly at the captain. "How do you know all this?"

Captain Tzatara smiled and got up to fetch another book from his bookcase. This volume stood out from all the others on the shelf. The cover was made from ebony and had gold designs etched into the wood. The pages were aged and lined with gold dust and the bookmark was of violet velvet. The captain opened the book in front of Rein and she knew exactly which book it was without having to read its glistening title: Xyntriav Book of Wonders.

"How did you find this?" Rein asked as she peered wide-eyed at its contents. The pictures inside moved and had sound and color. It was awe-inspiring. Sure, Rein was aware of its existence, but she had never seen it before.

"La Tennaco Canyon," Captain Tzatara answered. "Obviously, it wasn't an easy prize. Especially since I didn't have the help that it offers to find it. Unfortunately, the fairies were clever enough to leave out some important information and that's where you come in."

Rein snapped out of her amazement. "I can finish it for you," she offered as she turned back to the first page. The Fairy Circle would have her drawn and quartered, but if she obtained wings again, she would never have to return to the Maja Forest and they would never try and convict her. "I can answer all the questions this book leaves you with."

Captain Tzatara stopped her by closing the book. "Ye can start with the location of the key."

"Well, everything besides that of course," Rein said.

The captain pulled the book away from her. "I don't care about everything else at the moment. I want the key."

"But you might want to know for future reference," Rein suggested.

"Then I'll figure it all out in the future. Right now, I'm more worried about the present."

"Captain! Captain!" A crewmember pounded on the cabin door.

"Get in the box," the captain ordered.

Rein decided that it would be more sensible to obey the captain's every word in order to stay on his good side. In making that decision, she immediately hopped into the cigar case and let the captain close and lock it.

"Captain! We've come upon the Royal Marina!"

"Is that so..."

Rein heard the captain rush out of the cabin and lock the doors behind him. Then came a series of shouts and cheers from the deck. Rein sulked in the case and crumpled the velvet kerchief in her tight fists. How could she learn the information she needed to get her wings back without telling the captain that Empress Renée had the key on Arcor? She remembered the small, leather-bound book that Captain Tzatara had shown her and realized that this time, she had an estimate to how long the captain may be out of his cabin.

The Royal Marina was a ship that transported the royal family of the wealthy country of Vira. Captain Tzatara wouldn't let an opportunity like that slip his grasp, and the chances of the Royal Marina surviving his attack were slim as he had the reputation of domination around the world. So, Rein concluded that she had plenty of time to get a lot done and no fear of death during the captain's fight.

Rein slipped out the keyhole of the cigar box and gazed at the bookcase where she found the book she desired three shelves up from the bottom. She glanced around for a way off the desk, jumped down onto the captain's chair, and then to the floor. She would figure out how to get back onto the desk later. Meanwhile outside the cabin, Rein could hear Captain Tzatara and his crew shout, jeer, and taunt the crew of the Royal Marina. They hadn't attacked yet. She darted across the floor and heard the captain shout orders at his crew the moment she reached the foot of the bookcase. The uproar on deck grew louder and with trembling limbs, Rein began her climb to the third shelf. The sound of war only increased her anxiety, but Rein continued on with her mission and worked to climb faster.

Soon after she reached her destination, two men collided into the cabin doors, grunting and growling at each other as they tried to wrestle the weapons out of the hands of their rivals. Rein pressed herself into the side of the bookcase in anticipation for the doors to break open, but they held firm. Finally, she heard what she concluded to be the sounds of one man stabbing the other and leaving him to die at the threshold, though she couldn't be sure through the colored, dirty glass who was on what side. With no small amount of effort, Rein forced herself to forget what she had witnessed and continued to pursue her commodity. She drew close to the line of books and journals and used them as support to keep herself from falling off the shelf until she finally reached the book she was after. Now the trick was removing and opening it safely.

Before Rein could decide how to access the book, the two warring ships started to catapult each other with large boulders, nearly knocking her off the shelf with the sheer force of every collision. As the impacts continued, each new boulder seemed to make its mark with increasing power. Rein watched as some of the captain's precious objects tumbled to the floor, including his books. She gripped one of these volumes desperately and when it became dislodged from its spot on the shelf, she shifted to grasp a journal. But a boulder collided with the Blood Omen before she had a firm hold of the journal's spine and she plummeted from the shelf back to the base of the bookcase. More volumes and diaries fell after her and she was forced to roll away before she could even clear her head from its impact with the floor.

To Rein's relief, one of the objects which fell was the small leather-bound book she wanted access to anyway. As she kept an eye out for more tumbling reading material, she opened the cover and found a folded piece of parchment inside it. Was this the loose piece she had eyed previously? Rein frantically opened the aged page and flattened it with her shivering hands to observe the map of an island. Then Rein's heart dropped when she noticed something that was quite unfortunate—the words were written in a language with which she was not fluent.

Rein was forced to spend more time studying the writing to figure out what language it was. It wasn't an elf language, a dwarf language, or the native language of the Continent Islands chain. It was Captain Tzatara's map, where was Captain Tzatara from? What language was the name "Tzatara?" Rein knew it meant, "great leader," in some language, but what language? She finally managed to organize her scrambled thoughts and narrowed her choices down to two: Hagorian and Dovish. The problem now was that those two languages were very similar and almost identical when written. However, there were times when they were strictly different, and usually during very important times—for instance, when reading maps.

Rein only knew a little of both languages, so she racked her mind to decipher which island was depicted on this parchment. Hopefully, that would help her to confirm the language. After several ship-wracking boulder blasts, Rein concluded that she was looking at a map of Roznova and the language was Dovish. Roznova was in fact one of the Continent Islands. This was convenient since she had already been headed to Arcor, the largest island on the chain, which meant that she and the empress wouldn't necessarily have to travel far after they met up.

Suddenly, the catapults ceased, signaling the end of the battle and cheers erupted on deck. Rein quickly stuffed the map between the pages of the book and scrambled to decide if she should try to return to the desk or if she should hide somewhere nearby. She examined the smooth wooden legs of both the chair and the desk and rapidly established they were too smooth for her to climb. Rein listened as the cheers outside calmed and the ringing in her ears claimed her hearing. Was it possible that she could hide somewhere in the cabin until they neared land? Rein doubted this but she could produce few other options. She spotted a trinket box carved into the shape of a tiny treasure chest on the first shelf of the bookcase behind her. She threw open the lid to find pearls and gold chains inside. Desperate, Rein climbed in, covered herself in the gold and gems, and shut the lid over her.

Moments later, Rein heard the cabin door unlock and the familiar sound of the captain's laughter followed.

"Go loot the boat and sink it! Take no prisoners!"

The doors closed and locked again. Rein remained completely motionless.

"So, Little Pixie. Where were we in our delightful conversation before I conquered the Royal Marina?"

Rein listened intently as the captain unlocked the cigar box on his desk. Her head buzzed and her breathing became quick and shallow.

"What the—Rein?" The captain's voice was firm. "I know yer still in here somewhere. You'd better reveal yerself before ya get in more trouble when I find ya."

Rein stayed quiet. She shivered among the jewels as the air grew hot in the tiny box. Meanwhile, the captain shuffled about the cabin, moving things around and swearing under his breath. The tension grew so difficult to bear that Rein even contemplated revealing herself in the hopes of gaining mercy, but she couldn't decide for certain if that was a wise decision.

"If I were this little pixie, where would I be?" Captain Tzatara asked aloud.

In the darkness of the box, Rein could hear footsteps nearing her hideout. Slowly. Cautiously.

"Hmmm..."

Suddenly, light flooded into the box and surrounded Rein.